I will immediately call fucking bullshit on anyone dipshitted enough to think we need to get rid of the Department of FUCKING EDUCATION. Seriously, anyone advocating that earns my immediate and long lasting scorn. Reform it, yes, but getting rid of it is a disservice to the entire fucking country.

Also, we kind of need the CIA and FBI in one form or another. I'd merge those two, actually, in order to reduce the amount of jurisdiction friction that goes on, and probably merge Homeland security with it or get rid of it. Seems like they all do roughly the same thing anyway. The Department of Commerce is also necessary. Basically, why the fuck would I remove the beauracracies that keep the trains running on time?

Raising taxes, socializing health insurance while at the same time making sure the folks losing those jobs can be re-trained for other jobs, folding Medicare and VA insurance into that, equalizing funding all over the country for education and start teaching less towards tests and more towards innovation, get rid of gerrymandering, get rid of Super PA Cs, and much stricter regulations on what banks can do with the money they hold.

It's all supposed to be about American security or whatever. And sometimes the bad guys the CIA is looking for comes here, which is how jurisdiction issues happen. *shrug* It's a matter of them keeping information from each other and stuff; they really need to have access to all of that, without regards to who's in what department.

Meh. Given that, insofar as I know, the President can issue orders to both agencies, that shit shouldn't happen. What should happen is whenever a CIA target enters the US, it becomes an FBI case, and the President just orders them to work together, period...

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

That is what should happen, and probably does, but people being people, egos and human error get in the way. I'd merge them in the hopes it would emphasize the whole "we're on the same team, morons. Get your act together." And I think (possibly wrongly) merging the two might save money spent on security? I'm not sure how much gets spent on either organization.

Well, letting gays adopt seems as important as abortion, if you ask me. Hell, if you're going to be against abortion, you should be for gay adoption so those kids can get a home if the mother can't raise them. But most people against abortion are a bit myopic regarding the gays as well.

Supports closing tax loopholes, and is willing to give the IRS more leeway in enforcing and auditing against corporations. Possibly include a measure to prevent employees of the Reserve Board (or similar positions of authority) from leaving to directly work for a company they had oversight of.

Willing to gradually raise the age limit on Social Security up to 70.*

most of the plans for this I've heard of would raise the age to draw benefits by one year every two - so for example, were it implemented now, in 2014 the age would be 66, in 2018 67, etc.

Give better funding to ICE for deporting those here illegally, and especially more funding for approving visas and citizenship applications.

Willing to put harsher limits on military R&D, especially cutting off ones that are badly overbudget*

Littoral, I'm looking at you

and put that money into better support for veteran's health care.

Return funding to NASA, goddamn it. I want to see a man on Mars before I die.

Supports the repeal of DOMA, even if that means a Constitutional Amendment.*

It's probably either that, or 50+ years of very gradual culture shift.

I can't think of anything else that I consider to be super-important.

Tropers are amongst the most civil, intelligent and toughtful people I've had the pleasure of talking to online. - Gutstheberserker

I'm anti-abortion, but at the moment the legal status of abortion itself is irrelevant.

This:

...unrestricted distribution of contraceptives, and similar reproductive health issues.

Is very important to getting rid of abortion, however.

Supports closing tax loopholes, and is willing to give the IRS more leeway in enforcing and auditing against corporations. Possibly include a measure to prevent employees of the Reserve Board (or similar positions of authority) from leaving to directly work for a company they had oversight of.

Yes, but I also think the IRS should be held to the same "innocent until proven guilty" standard as normal law enforcement, since apparently they aren't and that's idiotic.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

Ron Paul, only with the foreign policy of let's-say FDR, and putting more stock in the flaws of human nature and less stock in Bilderberg conspiracies.

(The foreign policy is kind of a deal-breaker for me. I love a politician who cites the Tenth Amendment, but on balance, I'd rather have the government we have now than be responsible for a whole lot of dead Israelis.)

Supports a flat tax of 25 percent, but closes any and all tax loopholes.

Pushes heavily for anti-lobbying legislation.

Pushes for federal gun control laws, abolishing the states right to decide gun control issues. Conceal carry is available if you pass a test and demonstrate good judgement on when to use lethal force, but automatics and explosives are illegal. Carbines and handy features like collapsible stocks and pistol grips are acceptable.

Tries to abolish corporate personhood.

Pushes for alternative energy.

Raises tariffs against imports, provides incentives for exporting and home based manufacturing.

Avoids on the ground intervention in other countries, but doesn't hesitate when American interests are threatened severely.

Pro-Universal Healthcare

Slims down on "managers" in government jobs, less chiefs, more Indians.

Doesn't erode military benefits.

Is against the contractor influenced military industrial complex.

The AR-15 is responsible for 95% of all deaths each year. The rest of the deaths are from obesity and drone strikes.

OWS charged the police lines (which are there for every organized protest) about twice a week. In Oakland, they vandalized the shit out of local businesses. Then there were the attempted rapes, the constant drug presence (not that I approve of drug laws), the Occupy member who was shot and killed maybe fifty paces from the protest, and then a portion of the protesters formed a human chain to stop people filming him being loaded into the ambulance... "Terrorism" might be a bit strong, as their agenda didn't have the focus required for terrorism, but you can't tell me that the police had no excuse to crack down.

I also think the IRS should be held to the same "innocent until proven guilty" standard as normal law enforcement, since apparently they aren't and that's idiotic. - Flyboy

I did qualify that I mean specifically for corporations, not individuals, though I'd support closing more tax loopholes for individuals as well. Ideally, this would be done by removing parts of IRS guidelines rather than adding even more, since usually that simply creates new loopholes.

a tad off-topic

Audits sort of have to be designed from a guilty-until-proven-innocent mindset, because the purpose is to prove that X is doing things correctly. Auditors are supposed to go in and look for what is wrong, then make X justify themselves if those discovered errors aren't really errors. Admittedly I'm more familiar with Quality Assurance type of audits, but one of my friends worked for the IRS and described the process as quite similar.

Also off-topic is the Do D/OWS stuff. I'd say take it to a new thread, but that's currently suspended, so find a thread where it's not off-topic please?

Tropers are amongst the most civil, intelligent and toughtful people I've had the pleasure of talking to online. - Gutstheberserker

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